Emergency crews from across the region descended on Brecksville and Broadview Heights Feb. 10.

They set up a human shelter at the Brecksville Human Services Center, conducted a wide area search in the Brecksville Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks and performed damage assessment procedures at various locations in Broadview Heights.

No need to worry though; it was just a drill.

A drill that required the unified efforts of organizations including several Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Cuyahoga County Emergency Management Agency, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Red Cross, Cleveland Metroparks and the Brecksville and Broadview Heights police and fire departments, among others.

“This was really integrating several CERT teams from around the county and getting them to work together as one cohesive unit,” said Brecksville Fire Chief Ed Egut. “There were some good lessons learned.”

One aspect of this year’s drill that did not exist in years past was the presence of disabled volunteers to help crews practice working with the physically disabled in a disaster scenario.

“No matter how many simulations you do, it’s impossible to get the same kind of training on how to properly handle physically disabled during a disaster that you get from actually working with them,” said John Gareis, regional training and drill coordinator for the Northeast Ohio Red Cross. “We were working with functional needs that people would want to have coming to a shelter as well as testing new equipment.”

Crews brought in shelter trailers, which store up to 100 cots as well as water, food and other supplies. Those items were set up in the Brecksville Human Services Center, one of many public facilities throughout the country that Red Cross has an agreement with to operate as shelters in an emergency situation.

Gareis said the center has many more amenities than other facilities, which typically include community centers and schools. Despite this fact, the crews still encountered an issue.

“One of the things that we found was there were certain areas of the building where we were unable to make radio contact to teams out in the field,” Egut said. Adding that the Multi-Agency Radio Communication System radios they were using likely were interfered with by the large amount of metal in the center.

“We’re going to have to rethink where we are going to locate a shelter to find a better place than the conference room,” Egut said. “We had to move to the Community Center but if there were a power failure we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Gareis said that being able to deal with sudden issues that arise is all part of the training process.

“You’re always going to get curveballs in disasters and it’s all a matter of how you’re able to cope with those unexpected issues that occur,” Gareis said.

When the radios weren’t working, crews used other communication tools like cell phones and basic word of mouth.

Gareis said people don’t realize the amount of training emergency organizations do each year. The Red Cross and other organizations will be participating in a similar drill in May at Gunning Park in West Park area of Cleveland.

From a teamwork standpoint, the drill was an overall success, according to both Egut and Gareis.

“It worked out really well between CERT and the Red Cross,” Egut said. “Like everything else, the more you do it the more you learn.”

To add to the realism, members of the drama club at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School volunteered their acting chops as they pretended to be victims of a disaster.

Drama club members did similar work in the spring of 2012 when emergency services from several cities performed a mock shooting drill at BBHHS.

The wide area search drill was conducted by Cleveland Metroparks employees and focused on methods of locating and rescuing those lost or trapped during a disaster such as a severe storm or flood.

The damage assessment drill, led by Broadview Heights Fire Chief Jeff Hajek, focused on how to gather information and report back on the destruction such disasters can create.

“The concept of the drill was that Broadview Heights had sustained more of the damage than Brecksville so we were using Brecksville’s facilities to take pressure off of utilities in Broadview Heights,” Hajek explained.

The drill required CERT crews to drive out to three streets in the city, and find boxes filled with photographs of damaged properties.

Members of these crews assessed the damages, filled out proper paperwork and reported back to their command post at Blossom Hill.

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